i spent an hour picking and de-seeding hips to dry out for making tea, poped them in the oven as it was cooling down to dry them out. Forgot to tell the dear GF and she went to make pizza the next day, not checking before preheating the oven - note to all: rosehip charcoal is VERY labour intensive!

Rosa canina hips are now starting to ripen, got a bucketful yesterday. Straight into the freezer for the frost treatment. Have found 2 prolific bushes so far, will be revisiting them throughout the season!!

Some people say that they should be treated like sloes and only picked after eth first frost. They are supposed to be sweeter the riper they are and after frost. But, they dont last long here so we have always picked once teh colour and size looks ripe. For the big fat rose hips they will be either orange or red depending on variety. They will detatch easily from the plant when ready and have alittle give to the flesh. The wild version are a much harder feeling. HTH

diggernotdreamer wrote:Has anyone noticed if there are any sloes in their area, we have none at all this year, have looked everywhere, must have been the strange weather earlier on in the year, all my little apples fell off as well

Lyn

We have tons of blackthorn here around the Stirling area, but nearly all are devoid of any sloes. I've found a couple which are nicely laden, which I'm saving to pick in November. I put it down to all that rain we had in July, which probably ruined all the fruit, as it did with the elderflowers.